Chao, who served as George W. Bush’s secretary of Labor and now works at the Heritage Foundation, was born in Taiwan and immigrated to the United States as a child.

“It is unconscionable that anyone would use blatant race-baiting for political gain,” McConnell campaign manager Jesse Benton said in a statement. “Progress Kentucky should be ashamed of themselves. We hope all Americans can agree that these disgusting tactics have no place in American politics as we try to bring people together to solve our difficult problems.”

He added, “Secretary Chao and her family are shining examples of the American Dream: salt-of-the-earth folks who escaped oppression, came here with nothing, joined our great melting pot, worked exceptionally hard to build a thriving business, and then dedicated so much of their lives to giving back.”

Ashley Judd, the actress weighing a challenge to McConnell, condemned the comments.

Whatever the intention, whatever the venue, whomever the person, attacks or comments on anyone's ethnicity are wrong & patently unacceptable

“Progress Kentucky strongly denies that the organization has engaged in” race-baiting, Shawn Reilly, executive director of Progress Kentucky, responded in a statement. “Benton’s statements are an attempt to divert attention from the fact that Mitch McConnell has engaged in the selling of the American middle class overseas for decades.”

By Tuesday evening, after a barrage of criticism, Progress Kentucky backtracked in a lengthy statement.

“In an effort to educate Kentucky voters as to the varied interests of Sen. McConnell we provided information about connections between the senator and business and government interests in China. This information included an inappropriate comment on the ethnicity of the former Secretary of Labor, Elaine Chao, the senator’s wife.

“We apologize to the secretary for that unnecessary comment and have deleted the tweets in question. In addition, we have put a review process in place to ensure tweets and other social media communications from Progress KY are reviewed and approved prior to posting.”

“Mitch McConnell’s the embodiment of everything that’s wrong with Washington’s partisan political gridlock and that’s why he’s the least popular Senator in the country,” Barasky said, “but the DSCC does not agree with the remarks in question and thinks they are completely out of line.”